A club with names of legends who roll off the tongue, with managers and coaches who have led their side to glory year after year and fans who like no others can inspire their team to super-human efforts, even when it seems the whole outside world is against them.

But more than anything else, Liverpool FC is a club which was built and mastered towards a dedication of winning trophies.

In those terms, the club has excelled: a magnificent haul of 40 major competition wins include 18 League Title Championships, a UK record-breaking five European Cups, seven FA Cups, seven League Cups and three UEFA Cups.

Added to that the plethora of Charity/Community Shields, European Super Cups and lower-league titles, and it is easy to see why the history and tradition of the club is much admired and even envied by those around the country and indeed the globe.

True, in recent years such silverware has been in short supply—Liverpool have not won a major final since the 2006 FA Cup—but the Reds are never far from the top and in the midst of a major rebuilding under new stewardship at both boardroom and training ground level few would bet against them adding to their vast numbers of trophies in the near future.

Of course, no one single man can take all credit for any trophy win. Even in those matches where an outstanding individual display wins a prestigious cup final, there would still be games in previous rounds when his team mates did the business to get the team anywhere near the final.

And in the course of a final match, any number of saves by a goalkeeper or great set-piece delivery can go largely ignored in the annuls of time, despite being thoroughly key to the triumph of the team on the day—though of course, we should always strive to remember such performances.

But in the end, only the most tangible of footballing commodities can win a team a cup final title.

Goals.

We pay homage now to those Liverpool heroes who, Liver Bird upon their chest, took their chances when it mattered most to help the Reds on the path to glory—or despairing, defeated agony.

1990 Charity Shield: John Barnes

David Cannon/Getty Images

We kick off the slideshow with a legend, a minor trophy and a little bit of history. The 1990 Charity Shield was the last occasion when this trophy would be shared between the two sides before the penalty shoot-out rule came into effect.

This time around though, Liverpool faced Manchester United and drew 1-1, with the teams taking the Shield for six months apiece.

John Barnes was Liverpool's goalscorer, netting the equalising penalty.

1992 FA Cup Final: Michael Thomas

David Cannon/Getty Images

Full circle for Michael Thomas (right of picture) came in the final game of the 1991-92 season. Three years earlier, at the end of the 1988-89 season, he had scored the goal against the Reds which clinched the league title for his team at the time, Arsenal.

Fast forward three seasons and Thomas opened the scoring for the Reds in the FA Cup Final against Sunderland, en-route to a 2-0 victory.

Liverpool had laboured their way to the final, needing replays to knock out Bristol Rovers, Ipswich Town and Portsmouth as well as soundly beating Crewe Alexandra and defeating Aston Villa, but they made short work of Sunderland in the big game at Wembley.

1992 Charity Shield: Ian Rush

Anton Want/Getty Images

Rushie again now. The traditional 1992-93 curtain-raiser featured Liverpool in action in the Charity Shield again. This time, however, they fell to defeat after a crazy 3-4 reversal against Leeds United, winners of the league the previous season.

After Leeds took the lead midway through the first half, it was Ian Rush, scoring Liverpool's last goal of the previous season and the first goal of this season, who equalised less than 10 minutes later.

2001 League Cup Final: Robbie Fowler

Liverpool's only major final since the '95 League Cup was the FA Cup final one year later, a dour 0-1 defeat against Manchester United.

In 2001, under Gerard Houllier, Liverpool won every cup competition going, and it all kicked off with the League Cup final against Birmingham City.

Fowler's magnificent volley on the half-hour mark appeared to have the Reds heading for victory until a late penalty levelled up matters.

The game went through extra time without further changes to the scoreline, and in the penalty shoot-out, Gary McAllister, Nick Barmby and Christian Ziege all scored before Didi Hamann missed the fourth.

Fowler himself scored the fifth, and Jamie Carragher netted the all-important sudden death spot kick to seal the trophy for the Reds.

2001 UEFA Cup Final: Markus Babbel

Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Just four days after winning the FA Cup against Arsenal, Liverpool faced up to their third major final of the season, travelling to Dortmund to contest the UEFA Cup Final against Spanish outfit Alaves.

Rapid Bucharest, Slovan Liberec, Olympiacos, Roma, Porto and Barcelona had all fallen by the wayside en-route to Germany, and at first it seemed that Alaves would follow suit. Markus Babbel scored inside four minutes for Liverpool, heading in a Gary Mac free kick from close range.

In what would become one of the all-time epic European finals, this was only the beginning.

2001 UEFA Cup Final: Robbie Fowler

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Man of the Match in the League Cup final but left out of the starting lineup for both FA and UEFA Cup Finals, Robbie Fowler came off the bench to do what he did best, scoring and putting Liverpool back in front less than 20 minutes before the end of the game.

Fowler cut in from the left and ran across the box, firing home confidently to take Liverpool one step closer to lifting their third trophy of the season.

Again there was drama to follow though, as Alaves equalised again just a minute before full time.

Extra time loomed, and Liverpool took advantage of the Golden Goal rule to win the UEFA Cup after another Gary McAllister free kick was headed into his own goal by Delfi Geli.

A truly momentous match finished 5-4 to Liverpool, giving the Reds their third trophy in less than three months.

2001 UEFA European Super Cup: Emile Heskey

Michael Steele/Getty Images

Just on the stroke of halftime, Liverpool doubled their advantage with a far-from-customary strike from Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey.

Not that scoring a goal itself was strange. At the time Heskey was enjoying his most prolific form of his career, but the finish was very un-Heskey-esque. A composed little dink past the goalkeeper into the far corner.

It was 2-0 to Liverpool at halftime, and the Reds were looking good for another trophy win.

2001 UEFA European Super Cup: Michael Owen

Once the second half kicked off, it didn't take Liverpool long to extend their lead even further.

Fewer than 20 seconds after the restart, Michael Owen latched onto a through ball from Jamie Carragher and buried the ball past the Bayern 'keeper.

Before the hour mark, the Germans had clawed one goal back, and they scored a second a few minutes from full time, but Liverpool had done enough. Gerard Houllier and his team had completed a magnificent quintet of trophies in the calendar year of 2001.

2003 League Cup Final: Michael Owen

Ben Radford/Getty Images

Liverpool had defended well the entire game, and Manchester United pressed late on for an equaliser.

However, it was the Reds who scored the second and final goal of the game after Owen sprinted away from the defence onto a through ball and found the far corner of the net to seal another trophy for the Merseysiders.

2005 League Cup Final: John Arne Riise

In the League Cup final of 2005, one of the first of many Benitez vs Mourinho encounters, John Arne Riise gave Liverpool the perfect start with a volleyed goal less than a minute into the match.

For much of the game, it seemed a worthy strike to give the Reds the first piece of silverware under the new regime, until an ill-timed leap from Steven Gerrard saw him net an own goal and send the game into extra time.

2005 UEFA Champions League Final: Steven Gerrard

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

As iconic an image as Shankly with his hands raised, Emlyn Hughes clenching his fists before picking up the cup or Kenny wheeling away with a smile as wide as the river Mersey after scoring another goal.

At 3-0 down at halftime in Istanbul to AC Milan in the biggest final of all, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard rose above everyone to head home a glimmer of hope from John Arne Riise's cross.

It was still an uphill battle for Liverpool from here, but what was to come afterwards would surpass even the incredible scenes of Dortmund four years earlier.

2006 FA Cup Final: Djibril Cisse

Phil Cole/Getty Images

Liverpool competed in the 2005 World Club Cup Championship in Japan but despite bossing the majority of the final they were unable to find a way past Sao Paolo—at least without the referee disallowing the goal for one reason or another—and they were defeated 1-0.

Come the end of the season though Benitez led Liverpool to their fifth final in his two years in charge with an FA Cup final appearance against West Ham United.

Overwhelming favourites going into the game, it didn't go to plan at first for the Reds as they found themselves two goals behind in less than half an hour.

Again Cisse proved himself the man for the big occasion as he superbly volleyed home just after the 30-minute mark to put the Reds back in the game.

Certainly more victories than defeats in the games which really matter, and almost all of them have seen Liverpool players write their names into the history books with cup final goals.

From Barnes to Crouch, Rush to Cisse and every other player in between, their names will never be forgotten by Reds fans the world over.

Steven Gerrard's haul of scoring (and winning) in League, FA, UEFA and Champions League Cup finals is a British-based player record.

Under King Kenny Dalglish Liverpool now look to rebuilding those great times we have witnessed—and that is just over the past 20 years—perhaps far more success than some are keen to give Liverpool FC credit for.

Could many other clubs boast such a rich list of players scoring and titles won in cup finals?

For now we wait and watch and hope for a return of the day pictured above, when Reds fans in their hundreds of thousands flocked to the streets to welcome home their triumphant heroes, Champions of Europe again.